It's available for Windows and Linux, and one of the reasons it is on Steam in the first place is to make it easy to play on the Steam Deck, so if you have one, that's an option
It's a game inspired by Boulder Dash as I remembered it from my childhood (turns out, somewhat vaguely), but with a cosmic horror setting, and a lightweight story. I hope someone enjoys it!
The Portsmoor Abysm is now out on Steam, with a tweaked name to avoid some unfortunate complications.
Oh, was there already another game named "Abysm" on Steam? But "Portsmoor Abysm" also sounds good!
It's a game inspired by Boulder Dash as I remembered it from my childhood (turns out, somewhat vaguely), but with a cosmic horror setting, and a lightweight story. I hope someone enjoys it!
Well done, and a great combination in my opinion -- a Boulder Dash style game play with a great Lovecraftian atmosphere! (Just by chance, I'm currently reading some old novels of H. P. Lovecraft again -- "At the mountains of madness" and "The whisperer in darkness", which are both great to read again.)
Oh, was there already another game named "Abysm" on Steam?
Not quite... but 10 days before the release of my game a trademark application for the name in the area of "gaming software" became public, and by amazing coincidence I found it only four days later. After some deliberation I decided that the easiest path forward was to change the name, even though I had already been using it for 1.5 years. No big matter though, I think it adds a bit of personality to the name, granting a Lovecraftian flair.
Well done, and a great combination in my opinion -- a Boulder Dash style game play with a great Lovecraftian atmosphere! (Just by chance, I'm currently reading some old novels of H. P. Lovecraft again -- "At the mountains of madness" and "The whisperer in darkness", which are both great to read again.)
Renons wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2026 11:57 am
10 days before the release of my game a trademark application for the name in the area of "gaming software" became public, and by amazing coincidence I found it only four days later.
hmmmm. Makes me wonder if that is in fact a coincidence, or actually something sinister. Imagine someone has a way to view upcoming releases on Steam, and monitors it, and issues trademark applications for names which haven't yet been trademarked by the game author. Then they sit back and relax, doing nothing until/unless a particular game becomes financially successful -- then, aha, a juicy lawsuit target has just formed!
If you haven't trademarked the new name... watch out, and in particular watch for a new spurious trademark application snatching away this new name. (I wouldn't be surprised if the applicants were different -- this is the sort of activity which would probably use an endless series of new sockpuppet fake applicant names...)
hmmmm. Makes me wonder if that is in fact a coincidence, or actually something sinister. Imagine someone has a way to view upcoming releases on Steam, and monitors it, and issues trademark applications for names which haven't yet been trademarked by the game author. Then they sit back and relax, doing nothing until/unless a particular game becomes financially successful -- then, aha, a juicy lawsuit target has just formed!
If you haven't trademarked the new name... watch out, and in particular watch for a new spurious trademark application snatching away this new name. (I wouldn't be surprised if the applicants were different -- this is the sort of activity which would probably use an endless series of new sockpuppet fake applicant names...)
I mean, that's completely fair, I certainly asked the same question. There are couple of reasons I don't think it's particularly likely, though I certainly can't know:
The application was first filed on September 15th last year, it just became public on March the 10th, and even though I was public about my intent and the demo was available on Itch.io I still did not actually get my game approved by Steam until the 25th that same month
My public use of the name for my game was almost one year old at the time of the filing, which I believe makes the outcome of a legal battle at the very least unpredictable
The application costs at least $300 to file and my game doesn't seem like a very juicy target (I have not yet sold for that amount)
The owner of the trademark (application, technically it is still in the public review period) does not own any other trademarks
From what I have been able to gather it is not typically recommended that you file for a trademark for selling small games on Steam unless you're also planning to sell related products (think board games, action figures, that sort of thing).
